This writer has visited what local historians and the owner of the property call the Mary Lafoone Keith cave, described by author Bert Hendricks Reece in her book History of Pumpkintown-Oolenoy Land of Grain and Clear Water, published in 1970.

Mary was the wife of Cornelius Keith, Jr., who served in the Revolutionary War and who came to the Oolenoy Valley as a baby, with his parents, Cornelius Keith and Juda Thompson Keith.  

Reece wrote in her book about Mary LaFoone Keith and her actions during the Revolutionary War: “She was many times a heroine during this war. If she heard the British were approaching, she would ride even great distances to warn the Americans.” Reece wrote that, one of the times when Mary was on such a mission, her home was burned by some Indians who were loyal to the British, and a servant escaped with her children, hiding in a cave by the Oolenoy River until she returned.

This cave, as Reece wrote, is across the river from Miracle Hill School (land where the original settler, Cornelius Keith, lived). The rock cave at the Oolenoy River is not the same as it was 250 years ago. It was not even the same in 1970, as Reece described: “So much of the rock has been blasted and chiseled away for mill rock for grinding water ground meal and building chimneys that it scarcely looks like a cave. Too, it has filled up with soil in these 200 years. Only the imprint of the river bed is there with large trees growing in it. The river overflowed the area around the cave.” She wrote that Cornelius Keith and his servants dug a new channel for the river.

The owner of the property kindly guided this writer and two cousins to this cave on Saturday, March 29, 2025. After a hike through the forest, arrival was at the top of the cave and above the river. (The cave entrance was at river level.) Black snakes are seen in trees in front of the cave in the photographs below.